First drive: 2013 Audi A4 allroad

Originally published: August 9, 2012

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My dad is half-blind, doesn’t drive anymore and is often reduced to the rear seat as he now, out of both deference and self-preservation, cedes the front perch to my mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s. It’s been three long years since he’s driven, even longer since he’s been behind the wheel of a new car and, to be truthful, he can’t recognize an Audi from a BMW unless he’s standing a few centimetres from the badge.

And yet he’s as good a judge of cars as many autojournalists, especially when you consider that, unlike some scribes for whom handling and performance are the only criteria by which they judge cars, the old guy’s contentions are real-world. Indeed, he reminds me every day that, as much as I try to envisage the needs of each car’s clientele, nothing beats feedback from actual, real-life consumers.

To wit: Dear old Paps is absolutely convinced that Audi’s new A4 allroad has the best rear-seat air conditioning system in the world. His ancient, COPD-ed lungs have not fared well in our recent heat wave and his first request upon entering any car is Arctic levels of refrigeration. And, according to him, the allroad’s air con system cools with more vigour than any other car he’s ridden in. Considering that he’s been chauffeured about in everything from Bentleys to BMWs, Audi should be taking that as high compliment indeed.

Nor did the sweetness of Audi’s little 2.0T four-banger elude the old man. He originally thought — and Audi, if you’re looking to book him as a spokesman, know please that he already has an agent — that the allroad was powered by a V6, exactly the attributes the automaker is trying to portray with its turbocharged 2.0-litre four. Turbocharging small engines seems to be the future of internal combustion as it lets smaller, more frugal engines behave like larger, more powerful versions. The fossil in the back was impressed.

He also noted — again, from the back seat — that the A4’s transmission was smoother than the norm. That’s because the 2013 A4’s automatic transmission boasts eight speeds. Eight speeds are better than five or six for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that, with more cogs, there’s less of a jump between gears. That means that passengers — rear-seated or otherwise — perceive smoother shifts. It’s often difficult — especially under light loads — to tell if Audi’s slushbox has switched gears. Besides, with more cogs in the box, the top few gears can act as overdrives, lowering engine speed on the highway and, theoretically, at least, reduce fuel consumption.

Dear old Dad also appreciated the allroad’s increased ride height, the allroad sitting 37 millimetres higher than a garden-variety A4 Avant. Audi may have intended the increased height as a token to its off-road pretensions, but Dad appreciated not having to stoop so low to enter the rear seat, his old limbs being neither as limber nor as strong as before. Also, it was easier to help Mom into her front-seat perch.

Dad, always a practical soul (he owned — and adored — a Reliant K-car station wagon), also appreciated the allroad’s cargo capacity: 782 litres with the seats up. Dad may no longer do much in the way of home repair, but he still thinks likes one — once a handyman always a handyman — and one of his first considerations is how much he will be able to haul back from Home Depot. Or how many golf bags he can haul down to Florida (the major attraction methinks of that ancient Reliant). The trunk also has one of the niftiest rail-based storage systems in the biz, meaning Dad’s groceries won’t flail about even if he makes the mistake of letting his incorrigible son drive home from the Independent.

What I appreciated were attributes not quite so pedestrian. Oh, the slick-shifting eight-speed gearbox impressed me as much as it did the pater familias, but I appreciate that Audi managed to make the allroad ride even better than the base A4 (long-travel suspension goes a long way in taming the whoop-de-dos of our pockmarked streets). I also loved the allroad’s interior, though I must admit that when you order the basic MMI without navigation, both the system’s appearance and functionality is compromised compared with the full-zoot system.

Fans of the previous-gen A6-based allroad will lament that this latest version of Audi’s “Outback” is not radically different from the basic Avant station wagon sold elsewhere. Indeed, a good argument is that the allroad is all dressed up in butch off-road garb just to make it at least somewhat palatable to a North American wagon-phobic consumer.

On the other hand, that means the 2013 allroad is relatively competitively priced at $49,700, another attribute my dear old dad can appreciate.